Former Manager Hoops It Up With Licensing Venture

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It seems that AJ DiScala is ready to play ball.


The former husband and manager of “Sopranos” actress Jamie Lynn Sigler is now marketing himself as an investment banker and sports impresario.


“I’ve always been a deal guy,” said DiScala, “I was never an agent.”

DiScala and Sigler separated two years after they were married in 2003.


DiScala is teaming up with another dealmaker, Tom Petters, chairman and chief executive of Minnetonka, Wis.-based Petters Group Worldwide, to create a company that plans to license products and minor league teams in partnership with the American Basketball Association.


The new company, Beverly Hills-based Brax Capital Group, has reserved five ABA markets with plans to operate its own teams.


It remains to be seen how quickly the new project will come together.

Last year, DiScala and Petters joined two young entrepreneurs and singer Nick Lachey to launch a social networking site for teenagers called YFly.com. The site received a lot of publicity but is still under construction.



The Concern Foundation raised $1.8 million at its 32nd annual block party at Paramount Studios where it honored Jim Freedman, managing director of local investment banking firm Barrington Associates and his family.


More than 3,500 people attended the fundraiser to help conquer cancer. Radio personality Adam Carolla conducted a live auction with Concern Foundation President Derek Alpert. More than 50 restaurants including Border Grill, Caf & #233; del Rey and Pink’s Hot Dogs, set up booths on the studio lot.


Since 1968, the Concern Foundation has funded over 500 researchers studying many forms of cancer, primarily in the areas of immunology, immunotherapy and the genetics of cancer.


The Concern Foundation is a rarity in the world of non-profits because it maintains an administrative overhead of less than 5 percent, meaning that 95 cents of every dollar goes directly to the charity’s mission. The non-profit organization has a membership of 10,000.



The Library Foundation of Los Angeles, a non-profit group that raises private money for the Los Angeles Public Library, has named Carolyn Wagner as its new executive director. She succeeds Evelyn Hoffman, who is retiring after 15 years.


During Hoffman’s tenure, the foundation raised more than $65 million to support the Los Angeles Public Library’s Central Library and its 71 branches.


Wagner comes to the job with more than 25 years of experience in non-profits and education in Southern California. She recently served as executive director of Claremont McKenna’s Kravis Leadership Institute, and previously spent five years as director of Foundation and Corporate Relations at Scripps College.


Staff reporter Kate Berry can be reached at

[email protected]

or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 228.

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